Little introduction to Fiesta.NET and LaserMATRIX - video!

[gabe]

I went and took some screen shots for people to look at

Here we have a shot of the whole screen, each part of the software can be moved anywhere and sise can be changed,



Here we have some of the extra things fiesta has that other softwares don't (as much as i know)
we have the device display (the 3 ILDA outputs) Laser matrix favorites, (mapped to number pad) Channels (live control of transformations for the acual cue/effect) lasermatrix preview, (here i have 5 different projectors, doing a simple movement) and 4 DMX playbacks i have set for Flame projectors.

[White-Light]

Yeah showtacle is allways releasing new shows that he has built, there not the complete best, but they defanately aren't crap

Never said they were. All software has its place from the most expensive to the cheapest. People ultimately buy what suits them and their pocket best.

I went and took some screen shots for people to look at

Here we have a shot of the whole screen, each part of the software can be moved anywhere and sise can be changed,

Here we have some of the extra things fiesta has that other softwares don't (as much as i know)
we have the device display (the 3 ILDA outputs) Laser matrix favorites, (mapped to number pad) Channels (live control of transformations for the acual cue/effect) lasermatrix preview, (here i have 5 different projectors, doing a simple movement) and 4 DMX playbacks i have set for Flame projectors.

Take a look at QS / Beyond and you'll find a lot of live power.

To answer your points:

1. Personally I don't share you enthusiasm for screen re-organisation. If its well organised to start with then there's no need to move anything. One of the most annoying things I find in my video editor is the fact that I can accidentally drag windows and slot them in places I don't want them to be in and even temporarily lose sight of them as a result. The last thing you want in a show is to be accidentally moving windows I would have thought. Or to have moved them previously intentionally and be unfamiliar with where they are. For that reason personally I'm more of a fixed workspace kind of guy.

2. Device display, both QS and Beyond have zone previews which are much the same and display output according to zone, albeit with smaller windows. In both, you right click in the main preview window and select display by zone whereby you can display 9 zones simultaneously.

3. Laser Matrix Favourites mapped to number pad - Not fully sure what this is, I'm presuming favourite multiple cue effects where you have multiple projectors eg playing cues simultaneously and you can map this cue / projector combination for a 1 hit playback. If so, be aware you can capture favourite effects in QS / Beyond by using cue capture and drop the result to a cue for instantaneous playback. You can even drop entire time line shows complete with music into a cue space even where the cue or time line effects multiple projectors. All QS cues can be activated by clicking but are also mapped to the keyboard so eg. Cue 21 on a page might be mapped to the letter "T" so you can activate it by either clicking or by hitting "T" (they're also marked so you don't need a good memory)!

4. Channels - not in QS. Don't know what Beyond might bring to the table. Its still under development.

5. See my comment in 2 above.

6. Both QS and Beyond support DMX via the Enterric DMX Pro Device so although I'm not a dmx user, I'd imagine you could map to flame pots just the same.

Like I said above, its horse for courses. All softwares bring something to the table. Its just personal preference as to which feature set suits each user best.

[gabrielefx]

1. Personally I don't share you enthusiasm for screen re-organisation. If its well organised to start with then there's no need to move anything. One of the most annoying things I find in my video editor is the fact that I can accidentally drag windows and slot them in places I don't want them to be in and even temporarily lose sight of them as a result. The last thing you want in a show is to be accidentally moving windows I would have thought. Or to have moved them previously intentionally and be unfamiliar with where they are. For that reason personally I'm more of a fixed workspace kind of guy.

Yes! Fiesta.Net needs options to save workspaces like I do in Premiere Pro and in many softwares, because floating/dockable windows are too many!

In Fiesta.Net if you reposition the windows you will not be able to roll back to the default position...impossible with few clicks.

BTW, this is the definitive wish list for new functionality:

1) Dark interface like 3DS Max, Adobe AE, Adobe Premiere, Shake, Nuke, Fusion and many more softwares. That's because the artist must be concentrated into the graphics and should not be illuminated by the screen. (Pangolin understood it)
2) Transitions must be dragged on the timeline. Zoom in-out, crossfade, morph, and the other effects. (Qs2 rules!)
3) The red vertical line during the play should move indicating the time on the timeline. (this is a hidden option, they said that this option enabled needs a dual Xeon exacore machine......)
4) 3d artist don't want to see the volumetric beam effect on the preview window but only the projected graphic, please add an option to switch on-off it. (I found the option)
5) 3d parametric real primitives like: plane, cube, sphere, donut, cone, cylinder. (like Beyond)
6) 3d extrusion option to extrude 2d primitives. I want to create 3d extruded text (for example).
7) Lissajous graphic effects with controllable parameters via midi. (I purchased LSX to do these effects)
8 ) More controls on timeline, handles on left and right of the lines like Premiere. Multiple selection to define the same time (with numeric input) for multiple events. Automatic crossfade overlappig two events on the same timeline. Multiple audio tracks with crossfade overlapping the two tracks. Timecode input field to jump on a precise time.
Group tracks. Collapse track to fuse multiple events in one only. Nested tracks (containers), I can expand a track and it contains multiple tracks.
9) Audio waveform must drive every effect (like LSX)
10) Polyphonic midi control. I can assign a rule where notes C+C#+D (a chord) can start an event.
11) Text must have the possibility to read a long txt file from the disk
12) SMS and RSS feeds option. I can use a laser projector like a digital signage message system
13) When I drag a graphic event on the timeline I should see a little icon of that graphic. Double click should add it on the timeline automatically
14) The color wheel pointer should be BIGGER!!!!. That tiny dot is invisible....
15) Markers: on the timeline I should be able to add markers ad jump on the event I want to call it by name or number and assign a midi event for each marker. I should able to add a mark in-out to define start and end of the show
16) I want to be able to move and re-arrange the events on the various tracks (lines)...(LSX rules)
17) Add a filter on the events where I can "on the fly" lock/unlock/on/off that event, so I can check if that event is ok or not. (this was added in Phoenix Pro another reincarnation of LDS)
18) Please add a clock effect: digital and analog. (Qs2 rules!)
19) Please integrate the 2d vector paint editor or Quazar must have a bidirectional connection with Fiesta. I paint an object and I see the result directly in Fiesta or I copy paste the graphic on screen directly in the animation event.
20) I like that events can be driven by curves but I would like to drive them with math functions also. (LSX rules)
21) Keyframer must be more powerful, dockable, resizable, more controls like zoom in-out with mouse wheel, pan, autosmooth of selected corner points, needs a grid on the background, a zero line, control points must be BIGGER!!!!. Needs noise generator. All parameter should be controlled by curves.
21) Please add a rotation XYZ event combined, why add 3 events?
22) Please add an event module to play bitmaps, raster images, single jpg or a sequence of jpg.
23) Please add a 3d warping/deformer tool to twist, bend, squash, or displace deform grids, waves and vector graphics. All parameters controllable by audio.
24) Realtime cues preview (they said that this option needs a dual Xeon exacore machine......) (Qs2 rules!)
25) Horizontal scroll bar (they said that it's useless)
26) Asio support
27) CTRL+drag = copy
28) Faster loading
29) Offline saving (without dac)
30) Animation keyframer (LSX rules!)

Please add yours.

[masterpj]

gabriel, making stuff and for example beyond 3D dark was my first request when we were working on it because of distracting light.
anyway back to the topic: still need to try out the demo, when I got back at the hotel I was damn tired.

[White-Light]

Gabriel with that list wouldn't it just be easier to buy Beyond?

[gabrielefx]

Gabriel with that list wouldn't it just be easier to buy Beyond?

Probably I will purchase it, I need to check the demo before and wait for the FB3.net dac.
Is better that Pangolin use Fiesta.net dac...it's ready, it works. I don't think that in the FB3 box (and in all dacs) there is a special super computer. ILDA is a standard, all dacs should be exchangeable.

[White-Light]

All Pangolin software is tied to the DAC. I can't see that ever changing due to security. I think you'll probably find that nothing works on the Fiesta.net other than Fiesta. I could be wrong, but I'd be surprised if that was the case.

Generally its generic DAC's and software without proprietary DAC's that are interchangeable. Most major manufacturers tie their software and DAC's to their own products just as they do with cues and workspaces. It allows for greater security and anti-piracy.

BTW, I don't think you'll have much to worry about the Fb3.net and its functionality, in case you hadn't realised, Pangolin have had their professional board the QM.net around for years, in fact probably longer than Fiesta.

[sbk]

Wow Gabrielefx, you did a lot of research to write this big wishlist
Some comments on some points :

3 : yes you need to enable the option in the .ini file. But it consums some more CPU, must be optimised (not that much, though).
4 : you just need to turn the rear brightness to 0 in the device setting to see only the outline!
14 : Not really annoying, since you see the selected color in the little square, not?
21 : Keyframer is SO NICE to play with, but yeah sometimes I struggled to adjust a curve to the perfection, they should add a zoom function...
24 : oh yeah
25 : they said it will not be usable, since timeline is on 24 hours, so the scroll bar will be too small and reacts too fastly. There should be a way to improve it to make a usable one.
28 : it loads quicker than Quickshow...
29 : I can save in offline mode, not you?


I had my own wishlist too, mostly about a more decent sound to laser functionnality. Now there isn't a single "tap" beat learning function in the last release and that is really missing for live control (I have a beta version with a simple beat "tap", but not very advanced).

Some remarks or wishes too (I begin at 50 to differientiate mine of yours) :

50. Scanrate : there's a nice automatic scanrate, so what you project always has 35 FPS, no matter the number of points (you specify the max scanrate in the settings, in pps). But I found 35 FPS not enough, so I had to adjust it at 50 FPS in the .ini file (should be reachable from the software settings)
51 : Must have a better management of the shows. Actually to load a new show, we need to load the entire workspace, and its configuration. You may be annoyed if you need to load another show during an event, because the devices configuration may not be the right one. MUST be improved (I discussed it with the programmers).
52a : sound to laser : need to "see" the actual tempo, a "realign" feature, and some nice advanced triggering functions
52b : sound to laser : seems to be promising seeing the actual architecture of the software (effects, etc), and at least, the effects will FINISH before being restarted by another beat, not as LIVEPRO is doing!!! (=> no way to adjust the effect total duration to match the actual beat duration in Livepro...)
53 : virtual devices : Improvement of the "CAPS-LOCK" function, which sends the effect to all the virtual devices : needs a multi selection of zones, with ctrl+click, to send the effect to the desired zones only (Quickshow rules)

Anyway, what I like most in Fiesta is (also several are not available in any other software) :

- Frames programming : very powerful and simple way to program effects, with its effects and subeffects tree, transformation buffers, graphical keyframer, etc
- Virtual devices optimisation : very fine and easy to understand optimisation of the way the lines/points are drawed
- VD optimisation : RGB lasers modulation linearity adjustments (graphicals), which makes your laser output perfect
- Brightness map editor (BAM) : possibility to add, remove or edit multiple zones with individual brightness on each. Also you can display on the laser the area you are adjusting on the screen, making it waaaay easier to set up
- BAM is applied to the ENTIRE projection zone of the scanners, not just the specific zone defined in a device. This is NICE! No way to go wrong and display a too much powerful effect on a wrong or not configured zone (as I did sometimes accidentaly with Quickshow or Livepro)
- Screen maping is nice also, just draw the shape on what you are projecting, and the output is modified to match it (no struggle with linearity, symetry, pincushion and other things)
- The effects layout is exactly matching the keyboard, making it easy to trigger them
- Better looking previsualisation of the effects on the output (=> nice for offline programmation), furthermore the previsualisation window is customisable
- Great and simple timeline with clear audio visualisation, and plays the sound in real time where you place the cursor
- Infinite numbers of virtual devices, each with individual parameters (also synchronisable in one)
- Customisable and detachable toolbars, so you display only which one you want to see, and resize bigger the most important ones, also on multiple screens (in Quickshow, I HATE the vertical scrollbar in the master/cue control to the right...)
- Demo mode is nice, you can program effects to be launched automatically for 24 hours, with many options
- Nice management of DMX
- Nice management of MIDI, you can assign almost all the software features to a MIDI keyboard, faders, etc
- LaserMatrix seems ultra powerful, but this is for when I will own more laser projectors

Well, all this to say, there's not only bad things in Fiesta and I love to use it (after being a Pangolin Livepro and Quickshow user for many years, which I still am and will be)...

[masterpj]

making the dac exchangeable would allow the increase of abuse and the dac is there protected within one company for safety.
An opposite company is not going to support the dac of it's competitors for a good reason (they need to make money too).
Also not all dacs work the same or offer he same features as the other dacs, it would mean they would have to adjust for each dac... this costs money and time.
Namely i mean that with licenses and serials, the support for for example an unnoficcial dac allows the option for pirating by faking an serial or anything like that.

It's just not going to happen, even though it sound good and nice I know..
but sorry I don't see it happen, in fact i'm happy the way that system works actually.

[gabrielefx]

making the dac exchangeable would allow the increase of abuse and the dac is there protected within one company for safety.

I think that there is no interest to crack a software for laser projectors.

If a professional laser projector cost less probably there would be software piracy

This is a creative niche sector. If you got money for the projectors the software is the lower cost.